Fate/Apocrypha
a review by Toriko
a review by Toriko
Yet another one of my mistakes~ oh, no, those are Escape The Fate lyrics. Silly me. Of course we are talking about completely different Fate and completely different mistakes, which this alternative story from the oh so famous franchise undoubtedly is full of.
###What we do this time and what we have done before
Previous Fate series take place in a world with magic, where magi get a chance to partake in a Holy Grail War, a conflict between seven magi (Masters) and heroic spirits they summon (Servants). The goal is simple - to obtain the Grail and have one's wish granted. Grail itself chooses the seven Masters and it is up to them to use an artifact, catalyst, that will allow them to summon one heroic spirit from seven Servant Classes who will fight for them. Masters also possess three Command Spells, extremely powerful sorcery that enables the Master to force their Servant to... do anything, really. It can be used as means of enforcing obedience or simply pouring extreme amount of magical energy into the Servant to make them surpass their own limits.
Yet, Apocrypha is not based on the concept seven Masters (plus Servants) against each other. In this world, the Grail had been stolen by a powerful mage family Yggdemillennia, commencing Great Holy Grail War between two fractions - Black, that being Yggdemillennia, and Red fraction representing Mage's Association, ultimately summoning fifteen Servants in total. Fight for the Grail begins!
(from upper left to right: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider; from lower left to right: Caster, Berserker, Assassin
_Black Fraction Servants _
Red Fraction Servants
__
wait... what? why is there half naked kid? why is berserker class wearing a wedding dress? why is there a neko girl? is that pink haired girl a...?!__###Characters... or something
For anyone who has never had the pleasure to watch previous Fate series, ~~(i'm not talking about you, 2006 DEEN version of Fate/Stay night though, no one likes you)~~ this character design may seem... OK. And that's the fucking problem. Fate series reduced to nothing but your average fantasy struggling to appeal to the widest audience possible, using nasty, nasty tropes.
As I've said, fair or not, as a fan of Fate franchise, I simply MUST make comparison. Only to shed some light onto what we thought we would get and what we actually got.
This is_ Fate/Zero Rider, Iskandar._
This is _Fate/Apocrypha Rider, Astolfo._
_uh okay, nevermind, even other Fate series had some characters designed for nothing but looks, it's no big deal, pink haird girls ar~ OH. IT'S A GUY. Fate's doing traps now! cool. anything for the joke, am i right fellas! haha and what's this??_
This is _Fate/Stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Berserker, Hercules_.
And this... is _Apocrypha's Berserker, Frankenstein._
OH i guess it just... It just is that in this reality... Servants just... are... schmucky...
WAIT. WHAT IN THE FUCK'S NAME
WHY IS THE ASSASSIN A LITTLE FUCKING KID WITH NO FREAKING PANTS WHAT HAPPENED TO ZERO AND UBW ASSASSINS HOW DID WE GET INTO SEXUALIZING CHILDREN WHEN WE HAD THESE
Nevermind! You know what! Visuals aren't everything! Those characters may appear desperate to seem unique and original, but let's not be too quick to judge! They surely do have actual personality and aren't simply assigned flashy colours and one (1) extravagant trait to make them differ from each other! HAHA THAT WOULD BE SIMPLY RIDICULOUS! Let's discuss these complex personas!
Before that, I must say that I'm aware of the fact there are just way too many characters for all of them to be authentic and fully fleshed-out, yet the manner in which the situation has been handled is nothing short of poor. Not only did the creators fail to portray those characters in a way for us to become anyhow invested with them, they also managed to disregard the very basic fact that Servants are supposed to serve the Masters. That is, unfortunately for F/A, reality. The Holy Grail Wars are only able to take place if Servants take their Masters' wishes as priority. That is not a matter left for discussion - that's real. Summoned heroic spirits of course do have their own free will (and ocassionally demonstrate it even if it is in contradiction with their Master's), but they come to this War 'programmed' to serve. Of fucking course. AND YET
apocrypha master x servant relationship summed up:
Masters: "Hello could u um maybe do what i told u to do like at least once or maybe just don't act completely independently as if i didn't exist pls u literally can't ignore me that's physically impossible"
Servants: "New season who dis"
Don't even get me started on how I hate this new approach 'all Servants are now independent beings and are not obliged to respect their masters's wishes, also they can and WILL do whatever they feel like doing'. Another aspect of this tricky part I despise is that 'Masters give literally zero fucks as to where their Servants are and what they are doing'. There are exceptions, indeed. But why the fuck is the majority defying the most fundamental rule of the Fate Universe, like the whole concept is based on this and they just threw it outta the window you can't do tha~ u know, nevermind. Moving on.
####I will now explore the important characters. We may begin with Black Fraction, (~~mostly~~) the Yggdemillennia family.
Fiore is the successor of the Yggdemillennia family and her legs aren't working, so she yeets around on a wheelchair and also uses spider-like machine to run around while fighting. Spoiler alert, her younger brother decides she isn't fit to be a mage because she cried when her dog died when she was like 8.
Chiron is exceptionally obedient and does what he's told. Nice guy, very considerate and his homie Achilles is in enemy fraction ~~which inevitably calls for drama.~~ Unfortunately, there is no development and the relationship between Chiron and Fiore remains identical for the whole 25 episodes.
Celenike = Crazy sadistic yandere who would obviously enjoy raping Astolfo. Never contributes to the story, but don't worry, she gets her share of screen time, so we know that she has a room dedicated to sexually harassing her Servant.
Astolfo is funny 100% gay trap that never once even thought that he is supposed to listen to his Master. Also, falls in love with the main character and serves as the comedy relief. Command Spells don't work on him because the power of will. Although it is, yet again, not physically possible.
(these two are serial killers btw)
Reika Rikudou is the most random person to ever appear on this show. She is just there, doesn't belong to the family. Where did she come from? What's she doing there? WHO THE FUCK ARE U? Oh, you can play the piano. Nice! That's it? Ok.
Jack the Ripper is the sexualized kid with truly heartbreaking backstory, so we will fit her whole arc into one episode and there will be like 10 more subplots going on at the same time, so good luck with getting invested. They play no bigger role than another plot devices exploited for the sake of main characters anyway.####Now, onto the Red Fraction.
Cool Necromancer Shishigou and Morderd, the son of Arturia (THAT Arturia!). One of the few characters that managed to somewhat grow thoughout the show although they were given literally minimum of screentime. While their development is limited and mostly off-screen, this duo still manages to leave the watcher satisfied and concludes their story with enough closure. Their Master - Servant relation follows the tradition and still, what a shock, pulls off interesting, fresh and actually likable perspective on such relationship.
(from left to right: Achilles, Karna, Atalanta)
All three of them being Servants of Red, Atalanta and Achilles get some sort of development - rushed, forced and off-screen one that took place in the second half of anime, which is, well, fucking late for the creators to begin building up the characters. Not to mention both of them couldn't care fucking less for their Masters or Grail or Fraction.
Karna on the other hand demonstrates quite the unique traits and holds perhaps most of the potential to be Fate worthy character. Also, you won't guess who got the least screentime. Haha, definitely not Karna, that would be... well, schmuck.
One of the best attempts on decent portrayal of entertaining and somewhat deep personality. Semiramis is the Assassin of Red and while most of her development occurs in the latter part of anime, she does in fact get screen time before that and even is given some opportunities to show her true colours throughout the story. Loyal, intriguing, ambitious woman. Strong female character.####But who is the fucking main character?
There are three of them, at least from my point of the view.
If you suspect this anime had way too many characters to begin with and that such diversity already could have provided us with some quality MC material, you are absolutely correct. Why add absolutely hollow guy with no aspirations nor amibitions and make him the centre of attention? No fucking clue, but the idea of artificial human who becomes sentient and somehow is saved by numeruous Servants (who just felt like saving him) and also later on becomes the most OP fighter is pretty fucking bad. Sieg possesses very thick plot armor thus is invincible. Moving on.
The fifteenth Servant, Class Ruler. Jeanne is summoned to the Great Holy Grail War as neutral overseer whose sole purpose is to supervise the course of the War and to make sure that the participants abide the rules. Few episodes later Jeanne picks a side and actively partakes in the War due to, well, somewhat understandable reasons; Jeanne seeks comrades in order to be able to defeat the enemy despite the fact she should be able to single-handedly strike down anyone in her way, even when greatly outnumbered. Also, later on is reduced to nothing but plot device for unnecessary romantic entanglement.
Basically the antagonist of the show, yet one of the few relatable characters the viewer might have been able to root for. Shirou shows his cunning, skill, dedication to achieve his goal (which isn't even anything remotely evil) all while remaining composed and an actually kind leader. Shirou's presence makes Apocrypha seem like less of a shit, in a way. ~~Had he only been the protagonist instead...~~ At the very least, he is arguably the most complex and thought-provoking character in the series.###The Rest.
What is Apocrypha if we strip it from the oh so problematic characters? The main theme is simple, battle after battle until there's none but the main cast left. There are some entertaining twists in regards to the fighting strategies and ending itself carries some shock value, too. They also apparently try to create emotional atmosphere, to make us feel for the heroes when they pass away. The nerve to pull actually well constructed scene without the proper built up for the characters! The nerve!
Simply put, there are ideas. Situations, lines that could have worked. They even did sometimes. There are present takes on relationships unprecedent in the Fate franchise, stuff we've never seen before and it even is animated and overall done so well - just if we cared for the people on the screen. The attempts to make us sympathize with these Masters and Servants were at times done better than in the previous seasons. The attempts to humanize those characters and create any sort of bond between them and the watcher were carried out so poorly I was appalled.
F/A is without a doubt extremely hard novel to adapt. Especially while being pressured by the standards the previous seasons have set. Should we take Apocrypha as a standalone anime, without the necessaary comparison, the flaws would still be there, nevertheless. Having said that, Apocrypha isn't outright bad.
It's enjoyable, exciting show that failed to live up to its name yet delivered above average fantasy action with some bold and fresh ideas.
All in all, is Fate/Apocrypha worth watching? Definitely. Flashy fights, heroic spirits, betrayal, love, epicness. It is saddening that such a promising concept hadn't been done in a more suitable manner but since this is what we get, we may as well enjoy it for what it is.
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